Panthers, Preds happy with rookies Aleksander Barkov, Seth Jones

Top draft picks meet in regular-season game for the first of many Tuesday night at Bridgestone Arena

October 15, 2013|By Harvey Fialkov, Sun Sentinel

NASHVILLE, Tenn. The Panthers and Nashville Predators were tied for last in goals last season, so they were in dire need of offense in last June's NHL Draft.

Despite American defenseman Seth Jones being the consensus No. 1 pick on nearly everyone's draft board, Panthers General Manager Dale Tallon and Predators GM David Poile had their sights set on Finnish teen forward Aleksander Barkov.

When the Avalanche selected forward Nathan MacKinnon at No.1 as expected, Tallon pounced on Barkov. The Lightning surprisingly took MacKinnon's Halifax Moosehead linemate Jonathan Drouin at No. 3. So a shocked Jones tumbled into the Predators' lap.

Tuesday night marked the first regular-season meeting for Barkov and Jones, who have both gotten off to terriffic starts. Barkov, 18, has five points in six games with 15:07 of ice time, while Jones, 19, has three points and leads all rookies in time on ice (23:30), is second in shots on goal (14) and power-play goals (1).

"Based on whatever knowledge I had, we thought we were going to get a forward, a scorer and we probably thought it was going to be Barkov,'' Poile said during morning skate Tuesday at Bridgestone Arena. "But Dale is a great evaluator of talent. … You guys got a fabulous player.

"Having said that, we're certainly not disappointed in Seth. … He's going to be a star in this league for a long time.''

"He's a big player who's got really good hands and mature beyond his years as a player,'' Trotz said of Barkov. "He's got that man strength at 18. I know we had him very high. We were sitting in that 4-hole and all four guys we liked, but not necessary in that order.

"There's still a lot for [Jones] to understand, the nuances of the pro game, but his hockey sense and ability have allowed him to maybe fend off some of those extreme nuances. I can see him being very dominant for a long time.''

During the pre-draft interviews, Jones thought he would be a Panther.

"I don't hold it personally,''Jones said of the Panthers' rejection. "Everything happens for a reason, and I'm very happy here. Those three minutes to choose between each pick, were probably the longest nine minutes of my life.''

Barkov, who played against Jones in a preseason game and at the World Juniors Championships, isn't interested in any individual rivalries.

"It's no different; they have six centers, and I'll just try to play against them like a normal team,'' he said.

Faceoff help

Before the game, Predators centers Paul Gaustad and David Legwand were ranked first and fifth in the NHL in winning faceof percentage at 68.4 and 61.8 respectively, allowing Nashville (56.9) to be third, while the Panthers are 30th (42.2)

Panthers coach Kevin Dineen brought in retired-center-turned-Panthers-scout John Madden for a refresher course with the centers, especially rookies Barkov and Nick Bjugstad, who made his season debut after missing all of training camp with a concussion.

"Winning has a lot to do with winning faceoffs,'' said Madden, who along with former Devils teammate Scott Gomez were perennially above 50 percent on faceoffs. "Just competing hard and confidence goes a long way.

"They're going against strong guys who work on it every day. But by watching video and getting acclimated to the league, they're both really strong with quick hands, so it's a matter of time where they start dominating faceoffs.'' …

Dineen opted to play Bjugstad with Krys Barch and Tomas Kopecky, while making forward Scottie Upshall a healthy scratch for the first time this season.